Meta

Archive for January, 2009

We’ve just mastered and submitted to the platform pending release dates being set the following releases:

ARC 080 ELECTRIC GUITARSSINGLE ‘HEALTH’

ARC 081ELECTRIC GUITARSSINGLE‘WOLFMAN TAP’

ARC 083ELECTRIC GUITARSSINGLE‘WORK’

ARC 088CREATURE BEATSINGLE‘SHE WON’T DANCE’

ARC 089THE SPICSALBUM‘MIDNIGHT GIRLS’

We’ve also submitted the first trench of The Shoc Wave Records series.

Shoc Wave was a label launched in Bristol in 1979 by Gene Walsh and was based in Easton. Acts on the label included The Rimshots, No Deposit, Joshua Moses and Bugs Durrant.

ARC 079FELIX DCSINGLE ‘YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE’

ARC 082SWEET ENERGYSINGLE‘FAMILY AFFAIR’

ARC 084HASWELLSINGLE‘PRISSY MISS MAYBE’

ARC 085BLACK FLAMEZSINGLE‘LIVE JAM (BF MIX)’

ARC 086DOMINICASINGLE‘INDEPENDENCE FEVER’

ARC 087BLACK FLAMEZSINGLE‘NEVER YOU CHANGE’

We hope to have a full story on the label very soon but it was very different to any label in Bristol at the time, very diverse, multi cultural, covering many genres of music, Reggae, Dub, Native Dominican music, Disco and Ska / Pop.

Y … Bristol was ripe for a plucking … but refused to listen until
now!
And only now because the Massive Attack road crew are willing to
sponsor
THE HEAD STORY ON ICEGareth Sager nee (Hank Sinclair) was first seen pouncing about,
strumming,blowing … and plonking with Bristol’s …very own
’Out ­of ­bounders’ The Pop group and quickly put all that behind
him only to pop up again, half way down the M4 doing very much the same
thing with the free-forming Rip Rig and Panic.

Nicky (noodle) Shephard nee (Candy Horsebreath) was first sighted in
proto-punk vehicle The Cortinas,frightening the beards, beads and loon pants off of the piss poor bands that were “Making the scene” in 1976 …

Where as Rich Beale nee (Clevedon Pier) washed up into the
harbour, to make his first stage appearance with the little known . little talked
about but of no little interest 4P1V, they had a female bass player,
henceforth theV.

Mark Taylor nee SMT, was found wandering in a daisychain, deep in
darkest BlaizeCastle . hoping to catch sight of a young left winger Jamie Hill
(Plastic Bag) crossing deep balls into the box … for legendary downs league team, The Cotham Globetrotters …

Mr Sager amassed the troops at a public telephone box … in Stokes Croft
to rehearse … and with much ado about nothing HEAD (formally On Me
Head Jim) …Came out kicking against the shambling anorak pop and ‘The Face’ all
trousers and no talent stuff . that was poisoning the airwaves in 1986…

They walked a thin line of happy slap electrical guitar tunes with near
hysterical singing about as far ranging subjects as the barber in Clevedon, ‘Raymonde’,
to preparing sandwiches for their rock n roll picnics.

All anyone could say was “Are they serious?… ‘Is this cool?; ‘Should we be doing this sort of thing?²’…” Where¹s my mum ? I want to go home.

For their sins they released three albums:

SNOG ON THE ROCKS
TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS
INTOXICATER

None of which are remotely available now …

For the second of these albums they were joined by Will Ng nee (6 Pack o
Chicken) … as Jamie went in search of help…and on Intoxicator they were joined by Cheese Jackson … to this day the only member who is still a professional musician playing cruise ships in the Caribbean.

This collection of tracks have been amassed from found demo tapes of previously unreleased material, hidden behind radiators down the sides of sofas etc.

“We find the boys in fine form before they were to quote Mr Pier,

A ‘underworked, and overpaid.”

DIG IT !!

Line Up:

Clevedon PierakaRich Beale vocal

Hank SinclairakaGareth Sagerguitar and keyboards

Candy HorsebreathakaNick Shephardguitar and backing vocal

S.M.TakaMark Taylorbass

PLASTIC BAGakaJamie Hilldrums

Production by HEAD

thanks also to WILL NG…..JONATHAN SEAL….AND SOOTY

THE STINGRAYS

‘The Stingrays Live At The Dugout ’77: The Sound Of Two Hands Clapping’

The Crazy Trains were formed by ex St Bede’s pupils and long standing friends John McLean (vocals, harmonica) and Paul Grudzinski (guitar). Sharing a love of The New York Dolls, Chuck Berry, The Faces The Rolling Stones and 60′s garage R&B, they set about forming a band which reflected their mutual tastes…..

Dry Mini Album ‘Into Your Country Music’ ARCO72

A three piece melodic guitar pile up from Bristol, formed in 1996……Influences from Boston‘s Buffalo Tom to the City’s own Blue Aeroplanes.

Wushcatte Album ‘The Mr.Grins Sessions’ ARC0074

Wushcatte, pronounced ‘Whoosh Cat’, were formed at the start of the 1990′s, nobody knows why, they just were. The nucleus of the band came from the recently divorced Kid Sinister via the short lived ‘Road Dreams’ but the ethos was quite different, no pop pretensions here! …..

No Deposit Single‘MountainLake / Jazz Radio’ ARC073

One of the first releases from Shoc Wave Records. We are please to confirm that the majority of the Shoc Wave back catalogue will be re-released via Bristol Archive in the coming months….

Many New Mp3’s added to the site

Rob Smith, Tony Orrell and Steve Haley stories added to The People section.

Apoligises:

Due to technical difficulties the X-CERTS Album ‘Fussing and Fighting’ has still not been scheduled for release neither has the Harpoons single. The Distributor has confirmed today that they should appear very shortly for approval so we aim to make them available to the public in March.

Future Releases:

HEAD – the album is now finished and will be called ‘ xxx…lost butt found rotting under the sex cattle shed’ – aiming for March / April release

SHOC WAVE – the majority of their back catalogue

SOCIAL SECURITY – talking with the band about possibly an albums worth of 1977 Punk Rock

THE PIGS – talking with the band about re-releasing the EP previously released in 1977 on New Bristol Records but including all 13 tracks recorded from the same session.

DECAY SISTERS – an album to be released in March called ‘ Liver, Bacon, Onions The Lot ..’

CREATURE BEAT – single

THE ROYAL ASSASSINS – Album currently being mastered

THE SPICS – Album currently being pieced together by Adrian at The Great Bear editing suite

As I sit here in my office at home I thought it would be appropriate to draft a round up of 2008 for Bristol Archive Records, thank more than one or two amazing people and set the scene for 2009.

By chance and probably what prompted me was the that I’d just read the New Years Message from Wayne Hussey (One of Bristol’s / Yates favourite and most successful sons) of the Mission fame who is sat at home in Brazil, cold beer, shorts, T Shirt and flip flops – lucky bastard as its freezing in Bristol and I’ve been ill with that Flu thing for 3 weeks now.

I went to the same school as Wayne but have never met him. His family still live in Yate and I played basketball with his cousin Ricky Hussey for years but Wayne left the city for Liverpool, Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls, then Leeds, Sisters of Mercy and then the rest is history – The Mission.

Anyway Bristol Archive Records www.bristolarchiverecords.com was officially launched this year 2008 as a vehicle to talk about and remember Bristol’s forgotten stars, those people that should have, could have or probably had no chance of fame and Global domination ( unlike Wayne, Portishead, Massive Attack or Tricky) but had a go, made some great music, went to the gigs, helped make the records, bought the records or just had great fun growing up in this ace city of ours.

So here’s what happened in the last 12 months …..

I’d had the idea of the Archive record label some 6 years ago when I released ‘Western Stars – The bands that built Bristol 1977 – 1981′ permission had been granted to use the recordings by Andy Leighton – Fried Egg Records, Thos Brooman – Wavelength and The Bristol Recorder, Simon Edwards – Heartbeat Records and several of the artists, Jon Jo Key, Talisman, Alan Griffiths, Angelo Bruschini (The best guitarist in the world), Mike Crawford, Steve Bush and Latif Gardez.

I didn’t pursue the project unfortunately, what a tosser, but concentrated on my other label Sugar Shack Records until I had a phone call from Shane Baldwin advising me of the tragic news that Dave Bateman ( Vice Squad ) had passed away in Spain. Dave and Shane had come to my wedding some 25 years ago having just come back from the US on the Chron Gen tour. Vice Squad were a massive band to Bristol, Riot City Records their label, probably the most successful Bristol Independent label, certainly sales wise.

I made a decision at this point to ensure that people like Dave would be remembered in some way or another as key people in the History of the Bristol Music scene.

I needed what I considered to be a Big band to Relaunch, a band with credibility, track record and great pedigree. That band was Talisman to me so I set about fixing up various meetings with Des, Dennison and Brendan in Des’s house in Eastville. We agreed to remaster and re-release in digital format only ARC019. ARC020, ARC021 and ARC022 basically the entire Talisman back catalogue. I can’t thank the guys enough for their support as to me it was breakthrough agreement and the opportunity I needed to kick the label off in 2008.

My space provided me with the vehicle to track down people from the past and this put me in touch with Kevin McFadden, Misdemeanor who now lives in California, USA. Kevin didn’t have any of the old material but was keen to get involved and put me in touch with Gus and Bob Watson from there we obtained enough tracks from cassettes to master an album ‘Radio Radio’ ARC004. Kevin has had a terrible time in 2008; let’s hope 2009 brings happier days Kevin.

Mike Eagle also popped up on My space and that brought releases from Unity Station, The Review and The Driscolls – top bands from the Clevedon area.

Mike Crawford gave us permission for an Apache Dropout live album. Mike had been instrumental in helping me with the Western Stars album and is a constant source of help and inspiration.

John Douglas (Head of Bristol Access To Music) heard about the project and produced an albums worth of material from his first band Kid Sinister. Excellent it is too.

Bristol Archive is also run by my brother in law Steve Street, the legendary Studio Engineer from GBH and SAM Studios. Steve’s love of The Electric Guitars brought us a contact with Richard Hall in New York and from there meetings with Andy Sanders who still lives in Bristol and conversations with Matt in Portugal. We ended up with something like 40 previously unreleased Electric Guitars tracks and from there we compiled the album ‘Jolts’. The opportunity to release this work from one of Bristol‘s very BEST bands is amazing – Thanks guys.

Fingers crossed in 2009 we’ll get to re-release the singles form the Electric Guitars and there’s definitely enough material for another Fab album. Watch this space.

The press release for the ‘Jolts’ album was written by Gill Loats and Gill has continued her relationship with the label in 2008 and no doubt will continue to support us with her sensational memory and written words in 2009 and beyond.

The labels my space presence via www.myspace.com/bristolarchiverecordsuk was growing all the time throughout the year which led to phone call out of the blue from Phil Ollerenshaw, the one time Thin Air drummer who had been compiling Thin Air material for years and offered us the chance to put together a best of ‘Hunters and Ice maidens’. I’ve since had the pleasure of making contact with the rest of Thin Air, Paul Sandrone, Eddie John, Simon Nicholls and of course the Dynamo Rhythm Ace that is ‘William Waine’- there should be a Long March album available in 2009.

Phil’s involvement and his invitation to have a beer at the Tuesday Pop Quiz at the Prom, Gloucester Road meant I bumped into Simon Burroughs which has led to releases from Pola, King Billy, Shrewd, Dancing Teeth and his brothers band Court Martial. Simon has been a massive help in 2008, thanks a million. I also bumped into Steve from the Spasmodics which led me to seeking permission from Phil Andrews at Moles Records International in Bath to re-release The Spasmodics and the forgotten classic Rita Lynch album ‘Call Me Your Girlfriend’ – Rita gave her blessing as well. X

And then came another Biggy – The Cortinas, the legendary 1977 Punk band. People had been trying to re-release or find early Cortinas material for years with no success until Steve Street discovered in his attic a live recording of a gig in Plymouth in 1977 and then his step brother Dexter finds a ¼ inch master of the demos they recorded before being signed to CBS by Miles Copeland their manager at the time. Amazing finds and amazing that the band Nick Sheppard, Jeremy Valentine, Dexter Dalwood and Dan Swann (regrettably no contact was made with Mike Fewins) all agreed to release two albums worth of material through Bristol Archive and tell their story through the website. An offer has just come in from Anagram/ Cherry Red Records for the boys to now release a compilation album on cd of the ‘Best Of’- lets see what happens in 2009. Again brilliant words by Gill Loats.

Suddenly the ball wouldn’t stop rolling and Brendan from Talisman finds two sensational live recordings from the band in 1981 at Glastonbury and Bath Uni – both have been released as ARC032 and ARC033 – They are must purchases.

Steve Bush who had previously agreed to re-release Essential Bop material uncovers an album from the band he put together with Christian from The Various Artists called ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’. The band signed to CBS and the album is made up of the demos recorded prior to this deal.

Half way through the year we decided to re-release the majority of the singles released on Fried Egg, Wavelength and Recreational. I’d like to thank Jon Jo Key, Bill Stair, Amanda Stewart, Rob Marche, Mike Crawford, Latif Gardez, Rob Merrill, Clive Arnold, Steve Bush, Russ Mainwaring, Jerry Tremaine and Rob Williams for their support.

The ongoing contact and support from Jon Jo Key originally led to the re-release of The Various Artists ‘Solo Album’ but will lead to an Either/ Or album in 2009. If we’re luck maybe a Love Train album at some stage as well. Top Man Jon Jo.

Latif has given his blessing to re-releasing the Mystery Slang material ARC061 and ARC018.

The phone calls with Rob Williams from the Fans led to a Fans album that had previously been released in Japan via 1977 Records and his first band Uncle Po with Gavin from the Private Dicks…

Clive Arnold’s support of the X-Certs project has led to further communication with Chris Bostock and Neil Mackie and will deliver a sensational X-Certs album in 2009 called ‘Fussing and Fighting’ – Can’t wait!

Face Book as a communication channel popped up towards the tale end of the year for me and led to contact with Andy Pinner and Nobby Graham, Andy was the singer and principle song writer in Juan Foote and The Losenges and provided us with two releases from these great acts.

Face book also led to contact with Howard Purse and then subsequent face to face meetings where we put together the Andy Fairley album which showcases unbelievable material from Fishfood and Birth of Sharon. Thanks Howard and we await the Animal Magic album for 2009 with anticipation. Classic material!

Some of Bristol‘s amazing musicians have gone on to be incredibly successful and one such person is Neil Taylor. We all know the guitar solo in Tears for Fears ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’. Well Neil now plays with Robbie Williams, live and in the studio. Neil very kindly gave us permission to release an album worth of material from his first band 1978′s Sneak Preview. (Thanks to Simon Edwards Heartbeat Records for permission to use ‘Slugweird’)

The tale end of 2008 produced an unbelievably brilliant collection of songs from The Escape (aka Alan Griffiths) ARC064. Alan’s passion for the archive project is fantastic and will lead to albums in 2009 from his first band Apartment and The White Hotel. Alan also helped put us in touch with TVI’s and Tom Norflox for the Cave Studio demos, this may well lead to early Startled Insects material becoming available at some stage.

Anyway I’ve gone on for long enough now and it only leaves me to look ahead to 2009 with anticipation of many more classic gems from Bristol‘s past to be uncovered and made available via Bristol Archive Records

The Crazy Trains Album thanks to Paul and John

The Spics album thanks to Mike and Nick

Dry mini album thanks to John Emery

Wushcatte and further Kid Sinister material thanks to John Douglas

The Harpoons single thanks to Jon Brokenbrow

Decay Sisters album thanks to Dave Hares

The Royal Assassins albums thanks to Chris Scott and Dave Massey

The Delegates album thanks to Pete Giles

Restriction album thanks to Rob Smith

Head album thanks to Garreth Sager and Nick

Necromancy thanks to Pete Webb

The Shoc Wave Records entire back catalogue thanks to Gene Walsh

Creature Beat album thanks to Nigel Harrison and Matthew James

Special thanks must also go to Steve Street, Gill Loats, Shaun at Optimum Mastering, Rob at Ruby Music, Paul Whitrow, Simon Edwards and Geoff Ellis for all his hard work with the website.